


Still Green

by Skaboom



Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 15:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7719538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skaboom/pseuds/Skaboom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caleb got up and turned on the light, yawning and pulling on a shirt to go with his pajama pants before going to the window. When he opened it, he was immediately with a strong wave of fear and panic.</p>
<p>Set after episode 23.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still Green

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first The Bright Sessions fic, so bear with me.

Caleb started when a tapping at his window sounded. 

He took a deep breath, and promptly ignored it, lying back in his bed, ready to resume his so far failed attempt at sleep. This only lasted a few moments, however, before there was another loud tap at the window. Caleb got up and turned on the light, yawning and pulling on a shirt to go with his pajama pants before going to the window. When he opened it, he was immediately with a strong wave of fear and panic. 

“Adam?” Caleb leaned out the window to see his boyfriend...if they were indeed still boyfriends. Adam’s bike was resting against the tree outside of Caleb’s window, and he was clutching something that Caleb couldn’t quite make out in his hands. 

“I tried calling you,” Adam said, his voice full of the panic that Caleb already felt so intensely. “A lot. I need to talk to you.”

“I turned my phone off,” Caleb said. “I told you that I needed space.” Had he not been clear enough?

“Okay, well this is bigger than that, than us, than our relationship!” Adam insisted. “Please, Caleb, it’s really fucking important.” The boy was close to tears, and Caleb’s gut was lurching with a mix of Adam’s emotions, and his own. 

Still, he said nothing. 

“Caleb, please!” Adam begged. “Chloe might have been right. You have to let me in! I can’t shout this through a window at you, it’s not safe!”

Caleb wasn’t sure what was more alarming - the words Adam was saying, the panic he was feeling, or the desperation in his tone, but whatever it was, it was enough. 

“Back door,” Caleb said before disappearing from the window. 

He opened the door to see Adam, his face stained with tears, a file folder held tightly in his hand. 

“Come on.” Caleb led them both to his room, and closed the door behind them. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“My parents went to work tonight, to work graveyard, you know? And...I got curious. I haven’t been able to forget everything that you said, what Chloe saw, or...heard, or however it is that works. Anyways, I called the hospital,” he said, tears choking up his words. “I said I was their son, and that I needed to speak to either my mom or my dad, but...they said there were no Doctors Hayes employed at the hospital, no nurses, nothing.” He paused, looking at Caleb for a split second before gazing back down at the ground. “It was...suspicious, so I went into their home office and poked around a few things, and...Caleb, I found this.” Adam held up the folder, allowing Caleb to read the label on it for the first time. 

**Michaels, Caleb**

“They...have a file on me?” Caleb gulped, feeling his own fear begin to mix with Adam’s inside of him. 

“Yes!” Adam opened the file. “And look, the notes go back to long before I ever spoke to my mom about you, to before we were even together, before we were friends. She knew, Caleb, when I told her, she knew, and she said nothing. I’m so sorry, I’m...sorry that I jumped down your throat, I’m sorry that I brought you to them. I know you wanted space for a little while, and I'll give it to you, I promise, I will, but I needed you to have this.”

“Adam, you have to put that file back. They can’t know we know.” Caleb grabbed his phone and switched it back on, waiting for it to boot back up before he began taking pictures of the individual pages in the file. 

“Caleb, I promise that I didn’t know,” Adam said softly. “I would never do this to you.”

“Hey.” Caleb reached out, putting a hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Adam, I know. I can feel how upset you are, I can feel how scared you are. I know how you feel about me, I know that you didn’t set me up.” It hurt, looking at Adam, feeling how guilty and upset he was. “This is not your fault - like you said, they knew long before you told them, long before you and I even spoke, but Adam, we have to cut this off - you have to tell them that we broke up. I can’t be near them, I can’t give them any more access to me than they’ve already had.” 

“Caleb, I...I don’t want to break up. I...I love you. Caleb, please give me one more chance,” tears welled up in Adam’s eyes.  “I promise I-”

“No, Adam, Adam, we don’t have to, we aren’t - I don’t want to break up either, we just...your parents need to think that we did, at least until we can figure out what they’re doing. We just have to be discreet for a little while, that’s all, okay?”

Adam gulped, nodding, and Caleb felt the relief of the other boy wash over him. Caleb reached out and took Adam’s face in his hands, kissing him softly. 

“I’m so scared, Caleb,” Adam said, his voice barely a whisper. 

“I know,” Caleb said. “I know, Adam. I’m scared, too.”

Adam sniffled, moving to bury his face in Caleb’s neck. Caleb put his arms around Adam, pulling him in still closer, holding him tight. 

“You have to put that file back,” Caleb said softly. “Right now.”

“I...yeah,” Adam pulled back. “Okay, I know.”

Caleb took the last few pictures, then put the file back together, handing it to Adam. 

“Can...can I come back after?” he asked meekly, gripping the folder with both hands. 

“Yes.” Caleb nodded. He was terrified, and having Adam’s own panic so close to him may not have been the best of feelings, but the comfort that they could provide each other seemed necessary. 

“Okay.” Adam turned, ready to leave.  

“Adam, wait.” Caleb reached out, grabbing Adam’s arm. He drew him back in for a deep kiss. “Come right back.”

“I will,” Adam promised, slipping out of Caleb’s grasp. 

“Text me when you’re here, and I’ll let you back in.”

“Okay.” Adam nodded again, and headed out of Caleb’s room to the back door. 

Caleb walked with him and locked the door behind Adam. Once the boy was gone, Caleb slid down until he was sitting on the floor, his back against the door. He buried his head in his hands, trying to take deep breaths. Oh, how he had wanted Chloe to be wrong, how he had wanted to keep Adam away from the more difficult aspects of his powers,but now? Now Adam was smack in the middle of things, and Caleb was terrified, both for himself and for Adam. What would happen to him? To them? He didn’t know what Adam’s parents wanted, what they could do - what they  _ would  _ do. What he did know was that Adam was fully in this now, and Caleb was nowhere near certain that he could protect Adam. 

What fucking good was having a super power if you couldn’t use it to protect the people that you loved?

That was when it hit him. Adam had told Caleb that he loved him, and Caleb had been so caught up in everything else that he had completely missed it. He had missed it, and he had failed to say it back as a result.

 

 

Caleb didn’t know how long he was sat there with his own thoughts before his phone buzzed with a text from Adam saying that he returned, and when he received it, he threw the door open. 

“I love you too,” he said immediately, not Adam had a chance to say anything at all. 

“Oh, thank god,” Adam breathed. “When you didn’t say anything-”

“I was so caught up in everything else, I didn’t even realize you’d said it until after you had left, but Adam, I love you. I’m scared, but I love you.”

“I’ll help. Any way that I can. I’ll spy on my parents, anything it takes to keep you safe, Caleb. If they hurt you-”

“Don’t.” Caleb took Adam’s hand, leading him back upstairs. “They won’t hurt me. We have the upper hand right now. They don’t know we know anything about them. I’m going to be just fine.” Did he really believe that? Not really, but if he couldn’t calm Adam’s fears, they would both be stuck with the terror. 

“I hope that’s true,” Adam said, looking up at Caleb once they were safely behind Caleb’s closed bedroom door. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t believe you - or...Chloe, I guess.”

“We still don’t...we don’t know everything, I haven’t read the file yet, I want to take it to Dr. Bright,” he said softly. “Before we jump to our own conclusions, but…” it didn’t look good. He didn’t feel as though he needed to say that. 

“I just feel awful, I led you right to them, Caleb. Maybe they already knew about you, but...I brought you into that house, you spoke to them, I don’t…” he sighed. “I don’t know if they got anything from that, but I just feel awful.”

“Adam, don’t.” Caleb took Adam’s hand and led him over to the bed. They both sat on the edge of the bed, and Adam kicked his shoes off, tucking his jean-clad legs beneath him. 

“I can’t...not. I can’t stop thinking about it, about what might have happened if we didn’t figure this out, about what might still happen.”

“Adam, please,” Caleb said softly, reaching out and taking his hand. “Please don’t, not right now. There’s nothing we can do about it tonight. Yes, it is concerning, it’s terrifying, and I’m sure you must be so confused right now, but it’s okay, it’s all going to be okay.”

“How can you say that?” Adam asked, looking at Caleb with tear-filled eyes. “I’m not...there’s nothing  _ super _ about me, Caleb. If something comes at you, I can’t do anything to protect you. If my own parents come for you…”

“They won’t get me, Adam,” Caleb said softly. “Just by finding that file you’re protecting me from them.” He pulled Adam in, lying back on the bed, face to face with his boyfriend. 

“I just...I don’t want to be the reason that you get hurt,” Adam said. “I...no one’s ever  _ seen _ me the the way that you do, no one has ever cared for me the way you do. No one’s ever loved me that didn’t have to before.”

“I’m glad it’s me,” he said softly. “I...want to be the one that changes your life.”

“You already have, Caleb,” he said softly. “I...was never happy before you, and now? You can’t wipe out all of the sadness, the depression, the anxiety, and I know that you know that, but you have to feel how you’ve changed me.”

“I do.” Caleb nodded. “I feel it every day, and I wish...I wish that you could feel how you’ve changed me. I’m in control around you, you’re not like anyone else in my life. I feel...like myself with you, I can  _ feel  _ myself when I’m with you, but I can feel you too, and it’s separate and the same all at once. It’s not always easy, but I don’t care, because the parts that are difficult are worth it, Adam, because maybe I’m the first person that’s seen you that didn’t have to, that’s loved you that didn’t have to, but...you’re all of that to me, too. Before you, I couldn’t feel for anyone like this because I was never sure if it was my emotions or theirs, but with you...I know. I know it’s me...and it’s you, and it’s green, and it’s perfect.”

“It’s green,” he said softly. “What does it mean?”

“It’s...nothing, never mind,” Caleb said. 

“No, you’ve said it before, you said you needed me at the party to keep you green. What does it mean?” Adam pressed. 

“Okay, well sometimes...it’s like...emotions, they have different colors to them, and when we first...yours were blue, and mine were yellow, but when I was with you, it wasn’t blue and yellow anymore, it  _ is  _ green. It’s...us.”

“We’re green,” Adam said softly. 

“I...yeah.” Caleb bit his lip, worried he sounded stupid. 

“I think that’s beautiful.”

“I think you’re beautiful,” Caleb said softly, reaching out, pushing some of Adam’s shaggy hair from his face, resting his palm on Adam’s cheek before leaning in to kiss him. 

He felt warmth. He felt his warmth and Adam’s warmth, and his love, and Adam’s love, together, combining.

“Can you feel it?” Adam asked as they pulled back. “How much I love you?”

“Yes.” Caleb nodded. “I can.”

“Good.” Adam smiled at him. “I...it’s important to me that you know.”

“I know.” Caleb leaned in, kissing him softly again. “I just wish that you could feel it too, how much I love you.”

“I do,” Adam whispered. “Maybe...maybe not in the same way that you do, but I feel it. When you look at me like I matter, when you hold my hand, when you tell me I’m beautiful, when you kiss me like that. I don’t feel...all of your emotions, but I feel how you love me.”

Caleb leaned in close, kissing him again. If that was how Adam felt the love, he wanted to give him as much as possible. He knew how Adam felt all of the time, he knew how nervous he got, when he was embarrassed, when he was sad, when he was scared...and yes, when he was in love, and he just wanted to give Adam as much good as he possibly could. 

He kissed Adam, and kissed him, pulling him closer, his hands holding tight to the other boy until he felt exhaustion course through Adam. 

“You’re tired,” he said softly. 

“No, I’m not,” Adam said stifling a yawn.

“Really?” Caleb smiled. “You’re gonna lie to me?”

“Oh.” Adam bit his lip. “I...okay, yeah,” he nodded. “I’m tired.”

“Then sleep.” Caleb shifted, pulling the blankets up over him.

They’d never stayed the night together. One or the other had always gone home, but tonight? Tonight it was more than clear that they needed each other. Once Adam told his parents of a break-up, it would be more difficult for them to see each other, and Caleb wanted to hold Adam in his arms as long as possible before the storm hit. 

It didn’t take long for the two of them to drift off to sleep, comforted by each other, forgetting, at least for a few hours, of the dangers that lay ahead. Right now, all that mattered was that they were together, that they were in love, that they had each other. 

All that mattered was that they were still green.

**Author's Note:**

> So...it started out with a plot and sort of just turned into fluff...thanks for reading! Sorry for any errors, I...have not yet edited.


End file.
